The Mask of the Red Death: Alternate Ending
by CrimsonLuna
Summary: Two royals, a man and a women, burst in, looks of horrified terror on their faces. "The Dead!" the man cried, gasping in a breath as he did so. "The Dead!" he cried again.


_**: The Mask of the Red Death: Alternate Ending :**_

The ball was doing fine,  
>Quite a grand affair,<br>As Prince Prospero would have nothing less.

It was only for the ominous sound that came  
>Every hour on the dot,<br>By the great ebony grandfather clock  
>That clashed with the delightful time the royals were having.<p>

That is, until Midnight.  
>When the moon was at its peak,<br>The clock gave it's loudest yet.

Everything and everyone went silent,  
>Deathly so.<p>

As the sound of the clock died down,  
>The most peculiar sound appeared.<p>

**Crack…. SNAP! Uuuugh…..**

Was it, perhaps, one of the doors,  
>Heavy on its hinges,<br>Groaning as it opened?

**Crack…. SNAP! Uuuugh…..**

The sounds were repetitive,  
>And overlapping.<br>In the dead silence of the castle walls,  
>It almost made everyone there<br>Want to hear the sound of the clock again,  
>For, surely, it would have been a baby's lullaby<br>Compared to this sound of groaning and cracking.

If you listened closer still,  
>You could make of the sound of bear flesh<br>Hitting the ground, like a child running bear footed,  
>Though certainly more harsh.<p>

**Slap! SMACK! Crack…. SNAP! Uuuugh….**

All of a sudden,  
>There was a scream.<p>

It was off somewhere else in the castle,  
>And it was not the scream of one,<br>But the scream of two.

They heard the sound of rushed footsteps coming,  
>Along with the sound of doors opening.<br>Crashing into the walls and almost  
>Drowning out the earlier sounds.<p>

**Creeek… Bang! Boooom! Creek…**

It seemed like forever,  
>As the sounds drew closer and closer,<br>Nothing in the air but that reverberating sound.

Finally, after many a fluttering heartbeat,  
>One of the doors to the hall opened<p>

Two royals, a Lord and his Lady,  
>Burst in,<br>Looks of horrified terror on their faces.

"The Dead!" the man cried,  
>Gasping in a breath as he did so.<br>"The Dead!" he cried again.  
>And then, right before their eyes,<br>The man fell at his wife's feet,  
>Dead, his eyes rolled in the back of his head.<br>His wife screamed and knelt down to him,  
>Pleading him to wake up.<p>

But everyone had stopped looking at them,  
>For something else had enraptured their eyes,<br>In the most gruesome of scenes.

Just down the hall,  
>They could see people,<br>Their skin a grayish blue,  
>With horrendous splotches of red and black,<br>Like bruises on the frail man.

Some chunks of their skin were missing,  
>Rotted away or torn or bitten off,<br>They could not tell.

Some were even missing limbs.  
>Were <em>still<em> losing limbs-  
>And innards as well,<br>As the rotten flesh of their stomachs  
>Became too weak to hold in some of their organs.<p>

**Crack! SNAP! SLAP! Urrrrgh!**

The people watched as the dead advanced,  
>Reaching out to them,<br>Hungry for their flesh,  
>Thirsting for their blood.<p>

**Crack! SNAP! SLAP! Urrrrgh!**

Groaning as they limped or crawled along,  
>Their mouths held slack,<br>Eyes all but deep, dark sockets,  
>With white orbs rolled in the back of their skulls.<p>

**Crack! SNAP! SLAP! Urrrrgh!**

Finally, they reached the door  
>Where the women held her dead husband.<p>

They fell on her,  
>Gathering around her.<br>You could hear her piercing scream  
>For miles outside of the walls of the great castle.<p>

The sound of the Lady's flesh,  
>As they gnashed at it<br>Replaced her screams,  
>As she could scream no more.<p>

Then,  
>All was silent,<br>Save for a few groans.

The dead arose,  
>Revealing the women,<br>Pail from fear and her sudden demise,  
>Her skin- not yet the grayish-blue of the others,<br>But almost a snow white-  
>Torn, and missing chunks.<p>

At first, she lay still,  
>Then she twitched.<br>She got up, groaning,  
>Then joined the dead.<p>

The first to react was a woman  
>In the middle of the hall.<br>Her scream shattered the glass of silence.

Everyone ran for their lives,  
>Pushing anyone and everyone out of the way.<p>

And where was the Prince in all of this?

He, my dear friend,  
>Was in the black room with red tinted windows,<br>Laying in his bed of death,  
>His laugh deep and dark,<br>His eyes as red as the blood that spilled that night.  
>His laugh, load and ominous,<br>That of an evil conqueror.

"All is mine!  
>All is under my control now!"<p> 


End file.
